Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Time to blog about the camp pyramid before I forget all the details that I want to share.
First day for me
That's a Friday evening. Had to make my way to Tao Nan after meeting super late ying xieng at the pasir ris mrt. Saw Huiting at the bus interchange in bedok too.. Then in the end we meet christina too. Lol! The whole bunch of us ended up walking into Tao Nan all together. Without dinner at 7.20, all of us wearing red. So cool!!! Easy to spot also. Hahaz..
We did the identities for the whole grp. I think i wrote "Luxor" more than 50 times in that night!! Yup. Then we had some dilemma of not having enough material to make enough identities for everyone, made poor Alex who was at parkway search the whole mall to find us ribbons that were "around 2cm in length and must be orange in colour". Hahaz.. Evil us. But that was our desperate plea for help!
Saw super many cockroaches around that i freaked out and screamed when one approached me flying. So scared that i hopped around for a good while after that. I so don like insects that fly especially cockroaches!!!! Ew!
Had mac for dinner that night only at an unearthly time of 12am. Haiz.. See how much we did for the kids, giving up time for sleep. =)
2nd day
The arrival of the kids. I admit that i was apprehensive, wondering how would they be like, donno wad to expect frm them. Hmm.. Meeting some of their parents was nerve wreaking especially knowing that they would be under my absolute care the next few days and i would be responsible for everything that they do , to a certain extent. Some asked for my number which made it worse cause i was contactable at anypoint in time!! Moreover, my phone was on low batt. I keep thinking "What if they can't reach me?!?"!! Hahaz.. I was almost close to breakdown. But i held on to sanity and i fielded all their qns, with profession i hope. xp Hahaz..
Soon we were left to fend for ourselves. With 19 kids in hand i tried to learn their names but i have a bad memory. None of their names stuck. Even now i am unable to identify them with their names, only remembering their looks and calling them by their grp name- LEO. YAY!! I love my grp name.. Shall not digress. 19 kids. 2 of us. Me and mereith.
Day one was filled with lots of activities. Coupled with their homesickness and their unwillingness to open up initially i had a hard time.. Dragon boating in the morning right after we got ourselves kinda acquainted with each other. It was fun dragon boating but no less hard for them to coordinate with each other. So much so that the boat hardly moved at all. I had problems rowing too since the one in front of me was slower so i can't dip my paddle in, and the one behind me was faster so i can't pull my paddle back properly. Hahaz.. It was so muddle headed. After getting out of the boat the kids were complaining that they were all wet, whinning that they wanna bathe, wanna get out of their wet clothes and wanna go back to school cause they were hungry. I had a headache. So many request in such a short amount of time. Adding on to that, i was also wet and hungry. Grumpy people hungry people makes. Back to TNS for lunch. Whew~
Lunch was a busy affair. Had to organise the kids accordingly into single file, bring them to the front where food is distributed, make sure they get food, bring them back to the table, make them wait for everyone before allowing them to eat. Watch them eat, make them clear the remains into the waste bins provided, watch them soap the plates and make sure they wash the plates well and clean. After all 19 of them are more or less done with their food and cleaning up that me and mereith can finally have our lunch. By then we are already in the verge of fainting because of hunger pangs. Hahaz.. Imagine that happening for every single meal!!! 3 whole days, breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. *Faints
After lunch was station games. Found out that the kids can't stand the thought of holding hands with the opposite sex at all. Can't tolerate the opposite sex as well. LOL! So when they had to play a game involving the holding of hands, me and mereith had to be the link between them, all the girls crowding on one side and the boys on the other... Hahaz.. Comical. Had my hands pulled out of the sockets la the strength that the kids have.. WHA! =) My hands ached for days after that. Ooh!! I love their cheers. Really nice. Their expression when they do the cheers. Adorable. =) Heez...
Night walk next. This part... Tiring and long. The kids were complaining half the time and most of the time i was too busy keeping track of them and looking out for their safety that i din bother listening to the same old complains over and over again. It was juz too tiring to try and do everything at one time. I can't do that. HAhaz.. Especially this boy that was walking with me. I could hardly put up with him. Ultra complain king. And I din expect that from a BOY. The girls were well behaved and i din get much complains from them but most probably cause they were in front the whole time and i was taking the tailend of the whole line. The kids don understand the meaning of "2 lines" ending up in one huge mess actually so i had to keep organising them. Haiz.. It gave me such great "pleasure". Hahaz.. Alrights i shan't complain more.
Back to sch and time to bathe the kids. Was supposed to hose the kids as the school did not have adequate bathing facilities for the whole cohort to bathe in one cubical. Kids complained like hell so in the end i relented and gave them juz enough time to bathe in twos. Is 5 mins reasonable? I had no choice. It was a constant battle against time! All bathed and fed after supper, had to make sure that they bring down their sleeping belongings for sleeping in the tents that we pitched earlier that day. What a long day. They took forever to settle down and we only had our debrief at around 1 plus?!?
Then it was to the showers for us. I felt so flithy that i took an hour to bathe. Wanying's fault too la. HAHAZ... Had to wait for her and she takes eternity to bathe so in order not to sit around and do nothing, i decided to bathe longer. I felt so much better after that bath. So refreshed. Went back to room and found my grp still discussing the campfire event. They complained about us taking such a long time. Oops. *hides* sorrie guys. xp So discussed a while before people start falling asleep on us. Then a few of us decided to be heros and not sleep, instead being hardworking and do differentiation homework. Wad idiots. I gave up after a while. Hahaz.. Exhaustion. It was around 3 when i slept.
Day 2
More like a repetition of the previous day juz that we din do dragon boating and station games and night hike. We had obstacle course and rock climbing and camp fire instead. Just as tiring and time consuming.
The obstacle course was fun. I particularly like the way they referred to the scouts as watermelon heads. Hahaz.. I din noe that. xp Found the potion easily after getting the extra clues from us. Not bad eh.. They think fast. =) During the course of the games, mereith and i took some time off to talk to the kids. They were really getting out of hand. They just din understand the meaning of the word respect. Basic respect when we are ttalking can't even be observed. We juz got fed up. More so for mereith who had all but lost his voice yelling at them, asking them to quieten down. Gave them a talk about how we are feeling and asking them to understand our situation and why we are doing certain things. The situation did improve afterwards and for that i'm really glad. I was just starting to think that i can't stand it anymore. =)
Rock climbing. I was slacking around not doing anything since the PE teachers handled everything so well. I joined the others for games and campfire songs. Only after my grp finished their rock climbing did i interect with them again and played games with them. =) Rough la they all. Purposely sabotage me also to do a forfeit. Made me go to the middle of the canteen and shout "I LOVE LEO" Hahaz.. Quite an acceptable forfeit. yay! And i meant it. =)) So fun.
Campfire item consisting of the cheers and the mock actions were relayed down to the kids. And i can safely say that it was a success. Everything ran. Not smoothly but at least things happened. Considering that it was quite a last min thing, i think we did a good job outta it. =) Kids sick.. homesick.. Sleeping in the classrooms. I was thanking the gods for that. Sleep deprived kids don make good companions. Apparently they din get much sleep the night before because the tents were too crammed and too hot for them to sleep. Grumpy kids. Grr!!!
Ever noticed how people are when they sleep? Angels... =)
3rd day..
Last day.. I started to miss the kids already. Though they were rowdy, giving me headaches and making me lose my voice at some point, they were still fun and gave me joy and satisfaction when they are happy. Some of them even called me "teacher" and "auntie joyce" and all sorts of funnie names. Adoration. hahaz.. Ya i noe.. BHB. xp
Amazingly, my group won as the best subgroup. YAY!! LEO you guys rocks!! And lauxor won as the overall champion!!! So unexpected that we stared blankly at each other after the results were annonced. ahahah. i like the part where ker shin(the house queen) got drenched with water from head to toe.. Hahaz.. She came back and hugged every single one of us to share the "wetness". Lol!!
Time for the kids to leave after that. Fast.. 3 days... I had fun with them. Had photo taking then autograph and giving out of email addresses. i felt like some celebrity then. hahaz... Yeah. I'm so popular they want my contact. Muahahaz..
Group debrief and giving out of apples and 100plus.. Stuff ourselves full of apples and finally got out towels. I like the camp tees that they gave us too. Good quality wor! Something like the drifit material. Think i might wear it for training. =)
That was the end of the camp. Photo taking with the lauxor group. I've grown to love them. Heex. They are really fun people and i can safely say that i got to know some of the people that i already know before this camp abit more. The friendship forged would not be easily forgotten by me. =) We had lunch. GOOD lunch i muz emphasise. Crystal jade restaurant wor. For like 3 days we had proper food with proper servings. I'm so satisfied after that meal u could liken me to a cat licking its wiskers and smiling. Hahz.. Yeah! We had our own group debrief relieving our experiences though the camp, our thoughts and feelings about the happenings during the camp. Its like group bonding and i enjoyed it lots. =) Ice cream for the rest of us after that. Indulge. yay! Then Home Sweet Home. =)
-ends-
I know this is a long post. Doubt u read every single word of it. Juz get this: I enjoyed myself immensely. =)
First day for me
That's a Friday evening. Had to make my way to Tao Nan after meeting super late ying xieng at the pasir ris mrt. Saw Huiting at the bus interchange in bedok too.. Then in the end we meet christina too. Lol! The whole bunch of us ended up walking into Tao Nan all together. Without dinner at 7.20, all of us wearing red. So cool!!! Easy to spot also. Hahaz..
We did the identities for the whole grp. I think i wrote "Luxor" more than 50 times in that night!! Yup. Then we had some dilemma of not having enough material to make enough identities for everyone, made poor Alex who was at parkway search the whole mall to find us ribbons that were "around 2cm in length and must be orange in colour". Hahaz.. Evil us. But that was our desperate plea for help!
Saw super many cockroaches around that i freaked out and screamed when one approached me flying. So scared that i hopped around for a good while after that. I so don like insects that fly especially cockroaches!!!! Ew!
Had mac for dinner that night only at an unearthly time of 12am. Haiz.. See how much we did for the kids, giving up time for sleep. =)
2nd day
The arrival of the kids. I admit that i was apprehensive, wondering how would they be like, donno wad to expect frm them. Hmm.. Meeting some of their parents was nerve wreaking especially knowing that they would be under my absolute care the next few days and i would be responsible for everything that they do , to a certain extent. Some asked for my number which made it worse cause i was contactable at anypoint in time!! Moreover, my phone was on low batt. I keep thinking "What if they can't reach me?!?"!! Hahaz.. I was almost close to breakdown. But i held on to sanity and i fielded all their qns, with profession i hope. xp Hahaz..
Soon we were left to fend for ourselves. With 19 kids in hand i tried to learn their names but i have a bad memory. None of their names stuck. Even now i am unable to identify them with their names, only remembering their looks and calling them by their grp name- LEO. YAY!! I love my grp name.. Shall not digress. 19 kids. 2 of us. Me and mereith.
Day one was filled with lots of activities. Coupled with their homesickness and their unwillingness to open up initially i had a hard time.. Dragon boating in the morning right after we got ourselves kinda acquainted with each other. It was fun dragon boating but no less hard for them to coordinate with each other. So much so that the boat hardly moved at all. I had problems rowing too since the one in front of me was slower so i can't dip my paddle in, and the one behind me was faster so i can't pull my paddle back properly. Hahaz.. It was so muddle headed. After getting out of the boat the kids were complaining that they were all wet, whinning that they wanna bathe, wanna get out of their wet clothes and wanna go back to school cause they were hungry. I had a headache. So many request in such a short amount of time. Adding on to that, i was also wet and hungry. Grumpy people hungry people makes. Back to TNS for lunch. Whew~
Lunch was a busy affair. Had to organise the kids accordingly into single file, bring them to the front where food is distributed, make sure they get food, bring them back to the table, make them wait for everyone before allowing them to eat. Watch them eat, make them clear the remains into the waste bins provided, watch them soap the plates and make sure they wash the plates well and clean. After all 19 of them are more or less done with their food and cleaning up that me and mereith can finally have our lunch. By then we are already in the verge of fainting because of hunger pangs. Hahaz.. Imagine that happening for every single meal!!! 3 whole days, breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. *Faints
After lunch was station games. Found out that the kids can't stand the thought of holding hands with the opposite sex at all. Can't tolerate the opposite sex as well. LOL! So when they had to play a game involving the holding of hands, me and mereith had to be the link between them, all the girls crowding on one side and the boys on the other... Hahaz.. Comical. Had my hands pulled out of the sockets la the strength that the kids have.. WHA! =) My hands ached for days after that. Ooh!! I love their cheers. Really nice. Their expression when they do the cheers. Adorable. =) Heez...
Night walk next. This part... Tiring and long. The kids were complaining half the time and most of the time i was too busy keeping track of them and looking out for their safety that i din bother listening to the same old complains over and over again. It was juz too tiring to try and do everything at one time. I can't do that. HAhaz.. Especially this boy that was walking with me. I could hardly put up with him. Ultra complain king. And I din expect that from a BOY. The girls were well behaved and i din get much complains from them but most probably cause they were in front the whole time and i was taking the tailend of the whole line. The kids don understand the meaning of "2 lines" ending up in one huge mess actually so i had to keep organising them. Haiz.. It gave me such great "pleasure". Hahaz.. Alrights i shan't complain more.
Back to sch and time to bathe the kids. Was supposed to hose the kids as the school did not have adequate bathing facilities for the whole cohort to bathe in one cubical. Kids complained like hell so in the end i relented and gave them juz enough time to bathe in twos. Is 5 mins reasonable? I had no choice. It was a constant battle against time! All bathed and fed after supper, had to make sure that they bring down their sleeping belongings for sleeping in the tents that we pitched earlier that day. What a long day. They took forever to settle down and we only had our debrief at around 1 plus?!?
Then it was to the showers for us. I felt so flithy that i took an hour to bathe. Wanying's fault too la. HAHAZ... Had to wait for her and she takes eternity to bathe so in order not to sit around and do nothing, i decided to bathe longer. I felt so much better after that bath. So refreshed. Went back to room and found my grp still discussing the campfire event. They complained about us taking such a long time. Oops. *hides* sorrie guys. xp So discussed a while before people start falling asleep on us. Then a few of us decided to be heros and not sleep, instead being hardworking and do differentiation homework. Wad idiots. I gave up after a while. Hahaz.. Exhaustion. It was around 3 when i slept.
Day 2
More like a repetition of the previous day juz that we din do dragon boating and station games and night hike. We had obstacle course and rock climbing and camp fire instead. Just as tiring and time consuming.
The obstacle course was fun. I particularly like the way they referred to the scouts as watermelon heads. Hahaz.. I din noe that. xp Found the potion easily after getting the extra clues from us. Not bad eh.. They think fast. =) During the course of the games, mereith and i took some time off to talk to the kids. They were really getting out of hand. They just din understand the meaning of the word respect. Basic respect when we are ttalking can't even be observed. We juz got fed up. More so for mereith who had all but lost his voice yelling at them, asking them to quieten down. Gave them a talk about how we are feeling and asking them to understand our situation and why we are doing certain things. The situation did improve afterwards and for that i'm really glad. I was just starting to think that i can't stand it anymore. =)
Rock climbing. I was slacking around not doing anything since the PE teachers handled everything so well. I joined the others for games and campfire songs. Only after my grp finished their rock climbing did i interect with them again and played games with them. =) Rough la they all. Purposely sabotage me also to do a forfeit. Made me go to the middle of the canteen and shout "I LOVE LEO" Hahaz.. Quite an acceptable forfeit. yay! And i meant it. =)) So fun.
Campfire item consisting of the cheers and the mock actions were relayed down to the kids. And i can safely say that it was a success. Everything ran. Not smoothly but at least things happened. Considering that it was quite a last min thing, i think we did a good job outta it. =) Kids sick.. homesick.. Sleeping in the classrooms. I was thanking the gods for that. Sleep deprived kids don make good companions. Apparently they din get much sleep the night before because the tents were too crammed and too hot for them to sleep. Grumpy kids. Grr!!!
Ever noticed how people are when they sleep? Angels... =)
3rd day..
Last day.. I started to miss the kids already. Though they were rowdy, giving me headaches and making me lose my voice at some point, they were still fun and gave me joy and satisfaction when they are happy. Some of them even called me "teacher" and "auntie joyce" and all sorts of funnie names. Adoration. hahaz.. Ya i noe.. BHB. xp
Amazingly, my group won as the best subgroup. YAY!! LEO you guys rocks!! And lauxor won as the overall champion!!! So unexpected that we stared blankly at each other after the results were annonced. ahahah. i like the part where ker shin(the house queen) got drenched with water from head to toe.. Hahaz.. She came back and hugged every single one of us to share the "wetness". Lol!!
Time for the kids to leave after that. Fast.. 3 days... I had fun with them. Had photo taking then autograph and giving out of email addresses. i felt like some celebrity then. hahaz... Yeah. I'm so popular they want my contact. Muahahaz..
Group debrief and giving out of apples and 100plus.. Stuff ourselves full of apples and finally got out towels. I like the camp tees that they gave us too. Good quality wor! Something like the drifit material. Think i might wear it for training. =)
That was the end of the camp. Photo taking with the lauxor group. I've grown to love them. Heex. They are really fun people and i can safely say that i got to know some of the people that i already know before this camp abit more. The friendship forged would not be easily forgotten by me. =) We had lunch. GOOD lunch i muz emphasise. Crystal jade restaurant wor. For like 3 days we had proper food with proper servings. I'm so satisfied after that meal u could liken me to a cat licking its wiskers and smiling. Hahz.. Yeah! We had our own group debrief relieving our experiences though the camp, our thoughts and feelings about the happenings during the camp. Its like group bonding and i enjoyed it lots. =) Ice cream for the rest of us after that. Indulge. yay! Then Home Sweet Home. =)
-ends-
I know this is a long post. Doubt u read every single word of it. Juz get this: I enjoyed myself immensely. =)
